HANDS & IQ – How to recognize a smart hand: 1 – hand shape!

January 10, 2011

Just another concept of how various types IQ could relate to the fingers...?

The previous post introduced Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence Test (DMIT) – which e.g. describes how various aspects of intelligence could relate to the 10 individual fingers & the brain lobes. Unfortunately there appears to be no (academic) scientific evidence available which confirms the validity of the DMIT-model. But there appears to be multiple evidence available which does confirm that various hand features do provide clues to the general intelligence – specified to the intelligence quotient (IQ)!

In the next 3 posts a quick introduction to how various hand dimensions correlate with IQ, starting with: hand shape.

• HAND SHAPE & IQ:

The two most common causes of a mental retardation (Down syndrome + fragile X-sydrome) are typically featured with relatively broad palm. This typically results in a high ‘hand index’: > 47.

NOTICE: The ‘hand index’ is defined as: 100 x the quotient of the palm width and the hand length. A ‘hand index’ of 0.47 or higher could be described as high, because far most international ‘hand index’ studies so far indicate that the average varies from 42 to 0.46 (Japanese males: 43.1, American males: 46; Japanese females: 42.3, American females: 43.7).

So, one could expect that a low ‘hand index’ could provide a clue to a high IQ. But one should be very aware of the fact that the ‘hand index’ varies among men (higher) and women (lower), and among ethnic populations (lower in asians, higher in caucasians).

Interestingly… a 1980 Zagreb study on a large sample of males (N=540) has pointed out that ‘hand width’ does correlate negative with IQ (confirmed at all 10 IQ measures involved in the study). The study also reported that ‘hand length’ did not correlate with IQ – some of the dimensions produced very small positive correlations, which raises the question whether ‘hand index’ would have produced more signficant results than ‘hand width’.

NOTICE: The 1980 study also reveal that all 10 IQ measures produced positive correlations which ‘body height’ – a result which has been confirmed by many studies.

The picture below demonstrates how to measure ‘hand width’: in scientific studies this is always done at the position of the metacarpals (0ne could use the starting point of the life line as an easy identifyable point of reference).

And hand length is measure from the distal wrist crease to the tip of the middle finger.